Sparks Like Stars
Historical fiction
William Morrow
March 2, 2021
Hardcover
464
Free from publisher
Kabul, 1978: The daughter of a prominent family, Sitara Zamani lives a privileged life in Afghanistan’s thriving cosmopolitan capital. The 1970s are a time of remarkable promise under the leadership of people like Sardar Daoud, Afghanistan’s progressive president, and Sitara’s beloved father, his right-hand man. But the ten-year-old Sitara’s world is shattered when communists stage a coup, assassinating the president and Sitara’s entire family. Only she survives.
Smuggled out of the palace by a guard named Shair, Sitara finds her way to the home of a female American diplomat, who adopts her and raises her in America. In her new country, Sitara takes on a new name—Aryana Shepherd—and throws herself into her studies, eventually becoming a renowned surgeon. A survivor, Aryana has refused to look back, choosing instead to bury the trauma and devastating loss she endured.
New York, 2008: Forty years after that fatal night in Kabul, Aryana’s world is rocked again when an elderly patient appears in her examination room—a man she never expected to see again. It is Shair, the soldier who saved her, yet may have murdered her entire family. Seeing him awakens Aryana’s fury and desire for answers—and, perhaps, revenge. Realizing that she cannot go on without finding the truth, Aryana embarks on a quest that takes her back to Kabul—a battleground between the corrupt government and the fundamentalist Taliban—and through shadowy memories of the world she loved and lost.
My review:
This book begins in Afghanistan in 1978, and describes the effects of the communist coup that took place at the palace, particularly on the only member of her family to survive, ten year old Sitara. Sitara is discovered hiding, and a palace guard (who may have been involved in the killing of her family) takes her to a woman from the American Embassy. From there, Sitara has to be smuggled to the United States, change her name, and endure several weeks of foster care, before her American mother can take her in. Flash forward to 2008, when she is a surgeon and comes upon the guard who brought her to safety. This brings about all of the questions that Sitara (now Aryana) has kept pent up inside her whole adult life. She and her adoptive mother set out for Afghanistan, where she hopes to find out exactly where her family is buried, in order to get closure for the traumatic event she witnessed as a child. The writing was beautiful in this book, and the characters were so well rendered. The description of the coup, and subsequent journey for Sitara, was harrowing and made you feel as though you were right there with her. Despite what horrific things she witnessed at such a young age, this book shows the indomitable spirit of a girl who refuses to let trauma define her. It is very sad at times, but at the same time hopeful, and you will find yourself rooting for this woman to obtain a semblance of peace within her world.
A well written exploration into how we deal with grief, and that it likely cannot be hidden forever, without exploring its cause and resolution. While I would consider this book to have some slow parts, I think the overall story is definitely one worth reading.
